Brazil Senate picks new leader, veteran Sarney bows out

BRASILIA, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Brazil's Senate elected itself anew president on Friday to succeed Jose Sarney, a 50-yearpolitical veteran and one of the country's few remainingoligarchs.

Senators picked Renan Calheiros from the northeastern stateof Alagoas to head the upper chamber, despite corruptionaccusations leveled at him by the country's top prosecutor.

Calheiros, of Brazil's largest party, the PMDB, which ispart of President Dilma Rousseff's ruling coalition, has heldthe post before, but was forced to resign in 2007 in a scandalover payments by a lobbyist to maintain a former mistress.

Sarney, 82, is the head of a political clan that has wieldedpower for decades in the impoverished northeastern state ofMaranhao, where it owns the main media group. He said he willretire from politics when his Senate term ends in two years.

Born to wealthy landowners in Maranhao, Sarney served asnational president during Brazil's transition from militarydictatorship to democracy in 1985. He also led Brazil into a oneof its worst economic crises, which saw hyperinflation reach1,765 percent in 1989.

Sarney was a right-wing politician who came to power by ahistorical fluke, after the first civilian president elected atthe end of 21 years of military rule, Tancredo Neves, fell illonly hours before his inauguration and died. Sarney, themilitary's choice for vice-president, stepped into the deadman's shoes.

"I had an extraordinary opportunity to help my country inthe transition to democracy," he told Reuters in a recentinterview. "On my watch, Brazilian society became a trulydemocratic society, to the point that a worker could becomepresident."

With the backing of that worker president, Luiz Inacio Lulada Silva, Sarney became president of the Senate for a third timein 2009. The Economist magazine called his return to the Senate"a victory for semi-feudalism."

One of Brazil's biggest power-brokers for three decades,Sarney survived criticism of nepotism and corruption, includinga scandal over a $2.4 billion-dollar railway he wanted to buildthrough the Amazon linking the capital Brasilia to his homestate. He said that was the price he payed for staying inpolitics so long.

"We should follow the example of the United States, wherepresidents pack their bags and go home when they leave office,"Sarney said. "I should have done that. Politics is cruel."